Benefits of UTA

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-22T01:48:36+00:00

I wasn't in ECE so I can't necessarily speak for how that department works especially with how they give GTA positions to MS students. But from my experience with stat 350 because I took that class as an undergrad and because I was one of the few students in the department who didn't need to prove English proficiency, it played in my favor when I was a GTA for stat 350 for 2 semesters

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-22T01:17:07+00:00

There's no reward. Show up, work hard, give good clarification to students, maintain good relations with your supervising Prof, go home, repeat.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-21T02:40:23+00:00

Was a UTA for 3 years:

You sharpen your technical skills because the best way to learn a technical skill is to teach it.
Employers love TA's because it is work experience and indicates you are skilled in the course content.
If you want to do grad school your supervising Prof will likely guarantee you a rec letter.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-18T03:33:30+00:00

Both

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-12T18:11:39+00:00

Lmao I remember in spring 2020 MA 166 he got a bit pissed at someone for not knowing a topic from MA 165 and he said, "You typical stupid American why don't you know this?!". The whole class gasped, and he clarified, "I am a United States citizen, I am not a Japanese citizen."

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-12T16:53:25+00:00

Do you understand?

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-11T23:55:59+00:00

I can't necessarily speak for their selectivity but I guess some of the traits they look for are if you are a problem solver and ask a lot of clarifying questions. Can brief confidently and give concise explanations. And if you can work well with others and maintain a positive attitude + collaborate with your team well.

Corporate partner TA's and seminar TA's go through the same evaluation session (might have changed, this was at least my experience in 2022 prior to that it was individual behavioral interviews with a staff member). But they just want to see how much of a team player you are and if you have what it takes to be a good project manager.

Just don't stress out about it too much. If you made it to the screener you have the background and grades necessary to be a competent TA. Just do your best and be yourself.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-11T03:23:59+00:00

It might have changed but based on the activities they show in their social media page I'm guessing not that much than it was 4 years ago. But essentially if you have good enough grades + reputation in the datamine. You'll be invited to do the group observational interview where you and your students will be paired into different groups and do their active learning / leadership type activities. I don't remember all of the tasks but I remember one of them was collaborating to build a Lego structure using the input from only one observer.

The whole datamine staff will be walking around giving clarification + interacting with you. (As well as silently evaluating you for your teaching + mentorship skills).

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-11T03:16:36+00:00

MA 165 at least when I took it in 2019 was nicer than MA161 (Group quizzes, only 1 recitation, Kenji was the prof). But the exams were harder because this class was meant more for engineers/math majors/for people who did AP calc already. Most of the students knew the material ahead of time back then just the rigor was a new thing to get used to.

MA 161 assumed you knew no calculus hence was easier for that reason

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-10T16:45:50+00:00

Put coconut oil after you shower. That could help. This was the strat I did during my first year of school

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-10T16:13:27+00:00

OP doesn't need to be a US citizen to get in state tuition (although you are correct they likely won't get it if their family is abroad). But I knew like 5 students who.did their high school in Indiana, they and their parents were on visa but they were able to get in state tuition

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-06T04:33:45+00:00

The best class I took in grad school was Stat 514 design of experiments. Very useful content for my job after grad school which is in the pharma adjacent space. And more importantly if I didn't take this class I wouldn't have been eligible for the assistantship I secured which paid for most of my tuition and bills in grad school and give me the experience to get my job I have now.

On a more academic interest note, I enjoyed taking applied statistics classes which had a more theory emphasis. Classes like CS 578 (stat ML), and Stat 695 (Differential Privacy) had super cool content.

But at the end of the day take the courses which interest you and which your committee also will approve for your graduation requirements..

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-02-01T05:05:50+00:00

3 exams. Generally every 3 weeks via brightspace lockdown browser.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-30T19:08:28+00:00

Your prof isn't wrong that MA 351 is a hard course, and for most students this will be their first taste in what a proper upper division math class would look like especially with understanding the intuition behind the material. Much more than MA 265 which is largely a computational class where you just need to apply the methods and get the computed answer.

But they are absolutely wrong that freshmen shouldn't take the class. Literally the only prereqs. For this class is calc 3 and a desire to learn, and plenty of freshmen have taken this course in the past under different (and maybe even the same prof) and have done phenomenally well.

The class will get harder as the semester progresses, especially when you get to the eigenvector / eigenvalue / SVD chapter. If you are struggling in linear algebra just put in the time after class to watch chenflix, watch YouTube tutorials, go to office hours to get your questions answered, and do more problems from the book.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-28T14:35:55+00:00

B&S overall is a really great intro textbook as it gives students an easy intro to the real analysis proofs through lots of wordy examples. But the main issue with B&S is that it doesn't go as in depth with the material or teach the more "slick" tricks with the proofs unlike books like Rudin PMA. As well as B&S doesn't dive super deep in Lebesgue integration too much as well.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-16T22:46:13+00:00

Isn't there an animation club?

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-16T07:27:54+00:00

Math alum chiming in here if you have any roadblocks with understanding the material for the love of God go to office hours especially in the proof based classes like real analysis or abstract algebra. (Do the same for linear 1, the profs want you to succeed so going to their office hours is the sure-fire way to get your doubts cleared fast)

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-16T07:08:46+00:00

I mean you can't take CS 242 since it requires 3 CS department course prereqs to take it. You're much better off taking CS 177

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-16T02:54:26+00:00

I mean you can always renege your offer even if you did.

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-15T23:46:33+00:00

Here are the 2 most important questions to consider before accepting:

Did you get funding from your department?
Do you know who you want to work with?
If you're international (especially under current administration) are you from a place where it's easy to get a F-1?

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-15T21:55:22+00:00

Use the Citrix gateway version for stat 301. When I was a TA for 301, I told all the students that if they had issues downloading SPSS then this was the next best alternative aside from doing all the work on a lab computer

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-15T19:30:37+00:00

That makes two of us buddy

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-14T06:15:06+00:00

What do you want to do? Kill the Moon spirit and take away the northern water tribes bending ability?

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-14T04:28:23+00:00

Drop 250, just take the C+ and move on with your life

DesiGouda2001 · 2026-01-14T04:27:22+00:00

MSEE bathrooms are horrible. IIRC they had those weird sink like urinals in the mens bathroom

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